FGS Awards Presented at the New York State Family History Conference

The Federation of Genealogical Societies presents awards to deserving individuals and organizations in the fields of family history and history in general.

These awards serves multiple purposes:

• To recognize the society or individual that has made a significant contribution benefiting the genealogical community.
• To thank the society or individual for the time and effort they have given.
• To illustrate and serve as examples of the types of projects and activities which are being done.

FGS especially likes to recognize:

Member society exceptional projects that demonstrate longevity and advancements
Member society volunteer accomplishments
Current and past FGS Officers and the Board of Directors
And the fantastic FGS Conference Committees

This past weekend in Syracuse, New York at the New York State Family History Conference, four awards were presented. FGS President, D. Joshua Taylor made the presentations:

Western New York Genealogical Society
The FGS Award of Merit is presented to this FGS Member Society in recognition of meritorious service to the genealogical community with its 30 years of publishing the WNYGS Journal including many unpublished records covering Western New York and bringing county level records to light.

The Genealogy Guys
The FGS Award of Merit is presented to The Genealogy Guys, George G. Morgan and Drew Smith, in recognition of meritorious service to the genealogical community upon the 10th Anniversary of their podcast , "The Genealogy Guys."

Central New York Genealogical Society
The FGS Award of Merit is presented to this society for service to the genealogical community by publishing its journal, Tree Talks, since 1961. This journal is mostly transcriptions of original documents that are obscure or hard to locate. These records are arranged by county in each issue CNYGS now offers “County Packets” which include all previously published materials arranged by the county of your choice

New York Genealogical & Biographical Society
An Award of Merit is presented to this FGS Member Society in recognition of distinguished work in family history for the 2015 publication of the 856 page New York Family History Research Guide and Gazetteer in which more than 100 experts reviewed and contributed content about local and regional resources and key topics in New York family history. The New York Times said of this publication “This volume doubles as an overdue handbook for serious researchers (and an 840-page doorstop), but it also provides an enlightening and eclectic chronological tour of four centuries of New York benchmarks and record-keeping.”

Congratulations to these recipients. Do you know a deserving individual or organization? Please nominate deserving organizations and volunteers at www.fgs.org. Share your organization’s successes widely as FGS publicizes information on award winners. Recognize your outstanding volunteers.

The FGS Awards Committee is chaired by Paula Stuart-Warren of Minnesota and committee members are Amy Coffin of Texas and Cyndi Ingle of Washington.

Awards are surprises unless you want recipients notified ahead of time. Award categories and the online nomination form are found at www.fgs.org.

FGS Award of Merit: Shirley Sturdevant, Ontario, Canada

FGS Award of Merit: Shirley Sturdevant, Ontario, Canada

Another of the deserving 2014 FGS Award winners was Shirley Sturdevant from Ontario, Canada. Shirley won the Award of Merit. She is a member of the FGS Member Society, Ontario Genealogical Society. She almost single-handedly guided the Society through a complete restructuring process with a Governance Review Committee and has been key in implementing many of its key strategies with the ad hoc Governance Task Force.

Shirley revitalized many of the committees that had slowly dissolved (Awards, Nominations, Policy Procedure & Bylaws committees). She has also overseen the utilization of many new electronic media and the establishment of the Technical Services & Innovation Committee and Webinar Committee. She & her committee personally interviewed all applicants for the new Board structure and put together an innovative & thriving Board for the future.

Congratulations, Shirley Sturdevant!

This is just one example of how wonderful volunteers can assist a society in thriving. Does your society have some of these giving volunteers? Please visit the FGS website to nominate these members or others. Visit http://fgs.org/ and click on Awards for the details of each award category and the nomination form. Awards will be presented at various times during 2015 but if you are interested in a nomination for an award to be presented at the next FGS conference, the deadline is 1 January 2015. The next conference will be held 11-14 February 2015 in Salt Lake City in conjunction with RootsTech. Details are on the FGS website and everyone is welcome! Register now. [An inside note: we can accept awards nominations for a few more days if you want the award to be considered for presentation at the February conference.]